Othello

Synetic Theater’s hyperkinetic new production of Shakespeare’s Othello is like no Othello you’ve ever seen before. While it takes some liberties with one of the Bard’s most compelling tragedies, the company’s entirely wordless Othello remains weirdly in tune with the essence of the original play that inspired it. [Read more...]

El Bola – Cuba’s King of Song

A projection of El Bola’s round face with infectious smile greets you from a circular screen. Then Marcelino Valdes, in elegant white and black tux, steps through the Omega-shaped portal and impersonates Cuba’s King of Song by sing-speaking the riff: “All of us black folk drink coffee, you know!” from Ay, Mama Ines, (by Eliseo Grenet) and the fireworks begin. [Read more...]

Another Part of the Forest

This play by Lillian Hellman is rarely revived, and it’s worth making some effort to see this production of it, if Hellman is one of your favorites. It’s not her best play, but it is full of the good story telling for which she was famous, for its craft, for its awareness of what keeps an audience interested for, in this case, almost three hours with intermission. [Read more...]

Gretty Good Time

Gretty Good Time is about a paralyzed woman’s fanciful explorations into the meaning of her life with excursions into the devastating aftermath of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  Playwright John Belluso adds hefty doses of levity in what could otherwise be dismal and dire issues, and director Jeanette Buck seals the deal with a light touch of whimsy. [Read more...]

The American Stage: Writing on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner

Pardon me for writing this review before I’ve read all of the book. But if you had to wait for me to sit and savor all 96 entries in the 828 pages of text in this collection, it might be in its second printing before you found out just how good it is.

I’ve sampled enough to shout from the digital rooftops “This volume belongs on your theatre shelf!” [Read more...]